Canadiens Lineup

Cole Caufield – Nick Suzuki – Kirby Dach

Juraj Slafkovsky – Christian Dvorak – Josh Anderson

Evgenii Dadonov – Jake Evans – Joel Armia

Jonathan Drouin – Jesse Ylonen

Joel Edmundson – David Savard

Jordan Harris – Johnathan Kovacevic

Arber Xhekaj – Chris Wideman – Justin Barron

Sam Montembeault – Cayden Primeau

Michael Pezzetta, Mike Hoffman

Carey Price (knee), Paul Byron (hip), Sean Monahan (lower-body), Mike Matheson (lower-body), Kaiden Guhle (lower-body), Brendan Gallagher (lower-body), Jake Allen (upper-body)

Game Report

The Canadiens’ owner was looking for a photo op in arranging an pre-game salute to  former NHL defenceman P.K. Subban. But he got a little more than that. Subban advised the current players to ‘leave it on the ice’ and the Habs followed the script.

Subban had a little help with a surprise on-ice visit by Carey Price. The man in a black hat and the man of honor set the Bell Centre on fire with a triple low five. It was the move that caused Michel Therrien’s blood pressure to soar but on this night, it blew the roof off the arena.

With the energy in the building at maximum, Canadiens players were given an adrenaline rush. They responded by peppering Nashville goaltender Yaroslav Askarov, who was making his NHL debut. Montreal had 19 shots on goal, and 10 high danger scoring chances in the first period.

Marty St. Louis decided to deploy seven defencemen and just 11 forwards in his lineup. The tenacity of the skaters up front kept the heat off Sam Montembeault who had a shaky start. Montembeault gave up two goals on Nashville’s first nine shots. 

The Canadiens power-play came to life against a decent Nashville penalty-kill. Two goals with the man advantage was the difference in the game for the home team tonight. Cole Caufield notched his 24th and 25th goals of the season.

Kudos to Jesse Ylonen who plays a very mature, NHL-game at both ends of the ice. In his brief 8:21 of icetime, Ylonen made key plays in all three zones and picked up his first assist of the season in a Canadiens sweater.

Jonathan Drouin was given a boatload of ice time on the power-play tonight. He responded with three secondary assists.

The best player on the ice for Montreal was Jordan Harris who continues to impress with increased responsibility. Harris had a very strong game at both ends of the rink.

Up Next

The Canadiens will be spend the weekend in New York with games against the Islanders on Saturday and the Rangers on Sunday afternoon. 

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